


Dusk

by Medie



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Community: hc_bingo, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-02
Updated: 2011-06-02
Packaged: 2017-10-20 00:57:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/207109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Medie/pseuds/Medie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is a familiar ritual for them</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dusk

**Author's Note:**

> Written [](http://hc-bingo.dreamwidth.org/profile)[**hc_bingo**](http://hc-bingo.dreamwidth.org/) for the prompt "sore muscles"

They make it back to the island at dusk. The night is just beginning to truly take hold, the last of the sun's fire slipping down over the horizon and Suki can't quash the surge of relief. "It's sad," she says, putting her helmet aside. "It's been years now and I still feel better when the sun's gone down." Kyoshi Island never saw the invasion fleets that some did, but they'd learn to the fear of the sun and the power it had granted the Fire Nation's benders all the same.

"It'll be a while," Sokka says behind her. He rolls his head, cracking his neck, and groans a little. "I think I'm pretty much stuck on night good, day bad, moons are _awesome_."

"You're not the only one." Suki matches his groan with one of her own as she stretches her arms over her shoulder, then starts bargaining with her body. All she needs is a few more minutes, just enough to strip out of her armour, wash her face and then she can collapse. "I think everyone feels that way."

She feels Sokka behind her, so close his breath tickles the hair at her neck, and then his hands are rubbing the skin there. His thumbs work their way over the skin, back and forth, and Suki's body breaks off all negotiations. With a soft sigh, she leans into him and smiles when those hands start helping her out of her armour. "Don't tell Zuko," he says, kissing her shoulder. "He'll go all broody on us and it took us _years_ to break him out of that habit."

Soki turns her head toward him, smiling when his lips press against her temple, smearing the ruined paint there. "My silence doesn't come cheap, but we might be able to come to an agreement."

He laughs and she almost whimpers in response to his fingertips rubbing firmly against her back. "We will," he says, doing it again. This time, she can't quite keep the sound in and, luckily, he takes it as encouragement to keep going. "Oh yeah," he says, lips light against her skin. "I think we will."

By the time her armour is a neat pile on the table and she's in nothing but her shift, Suki's willing to grant him that much. Her body still might be protesting every movement, but its a token protest only now and quieting with every step through the house. When she finally tips forward, boneless, onto the sinful softness of their bed, Suki's in complete agreement with him. "Just leave me," she says, waving a hand in his direction. "Food, rations, I'll be fine."

She turns her face into the pillow. Fine. Better than. She's probably being maudlin, but she remembers a time when a day spent fighting didn't leave her a bundle of tense, sore muscles.

"Maybe," Sokka says, "but I'm not done with you yet. You might still talk."

Suki spares a second to watch him strip down to his pants, his own armour in a pile all its own by their door. She wants to laugh with the memory of those heady days after Ozai's defeat and everyone so sure of the war's end. None of them had expected resistance from those few pockets of soldiers and generals not quite ready to give in. She can see reminders of those battles in the marks on Sokka's skin and reaches out to trace one as he passes close enough to touch.

He grins, catching her hand. "No touchie."

She props her head on her other hand. "Going to make persuading me difficult, isn't it?"

Sokka leans in to kiss her. "You doubt the master?"

She tries to pull him over, tip his weight enough to bring him down onto the bed with her. She has her own ideas about working through the ache and he's too far away and wearing too much close for any of them. "You work better when you think you have something to prove."

He laughs, pressing his forehead against hers. "I'd argue--" he slips away, going for a small jar on the table. "But I have a better idea."

It's another one of Katara's concoctions, discovered in some ancient Air Nomad journal as she and Aang search the old temples, and Suki shivers when the first cool touch slides over her skin. Sokka's hands warm quickly as they stroke the lines of her muscles, working the tension and soothing the ache as they go. For all their teasing, this is familiar ritual and she spreads her legs as he works down the muscles of her thighs.

His fingers sweep up, teasing closer to where she wants them most, and Suki lets her eyes close. "You always did," she says, her voice thick and lazy.

"Did what?" Sokka asks, his mouth skimming the small of her back, his fingers curling into her.

She shivers, biting her lip. "Have the best ideas ever."


End file.
